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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24106162">One more if</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nie7027/pseuds/Nie7027'>Nie7027</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Persona 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Kinda, M/M, Major Character Undeath, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, akechi and akiren are the principal characthers, futaba sojiro and mona have brief appearances, i dont know?, i laughed when ao3 asked me if i wanted t tag major caracther death, marukis world:look how can i bend reality, playing with marukis world, so many revivals, the others are only mentioned - Freeform, this actually has the opposite, what if, yeah it is name after royals song "no more ifs"</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 00:28:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,765</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24106162</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nie7027/pseuds/Nie7027</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Akechi and Ren hadn't been each other's dream? What if Akechi's dream had been another?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>One more if</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>What if Akechi's dream had been to not lose his mother? What if Akechi's dream had been for Shido to be decent man? What if Akechi's dream had been to never have to become a murderer and instead have a normal loving family?</p><p>This is an exploration of how that first day at Maruki's world would have been for Ren.</p><p>So I haven't actually played royal (i haven't even finished p5 vanilla) but I have a vague idea of what happens that first day and here is my take. It's just an idea i had last month that wouldn't leave my head and i wanted to post before royal's release. Upps.<br/>Anyway i hope you enjoy it. This is baby's second p5 fic!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was barely afternoon and Ren could already feel the beginning of a giant  throbbing headache coming his way. </p><p>All he wanted to do was to crawl under his blankets and nap it off...or at least wait for it to pass. So he hurried his pace, making his way through the endless sea of people that made Tokyo’s daily commute. </p><p>He didn’t know if it was good or not but at least that hadn’t changed... It was probably for the better.</p><p>Afterall he didn’t know what was worse: to wake up with a strange good looking man who affirmed to be his cat, Mona, on top of him or to ran down the stairs to warn Sojiro of the intruder in his room only to meet up with Ishiki Wakaba herself calmly drinking a cup of coffee as if she hadn’t been dead for year or so.</p><p>The cat. Definitely the human-cat was the worst part. </p><p>
  <em> (WHERE WAS REN’S CUTE KITTY?) </em>
</p><p>Still, the shock of seeing the dead come to live wasn’t something easy to shake off. Not after Wakaba introducing herself to Ren and especially not after watching the ever stern Sojiro practically falling to his knees for her, hanging onto every one of her words.</p><p>If Ren didn’t find it in himself to confront Sojiro for answers to whatever the hell was happening, much less the beaming Futaba who was clinging to her mother even more than Sojiro, almost as if her life depended of that.</p><p>And if Futaba knew what was going on, it probably did.</p><p>So he left them there, the picture of the perfect family as far as it could be considering one of them should be dead, Ren couldn’t help but think with a pang of guilt, and walked away from Le Blanc looking for answers.</p><p>He had hoped meeting with their other friends could clear up some things. But it turned fruitless.</p><p>Not only they didn’t know what Ren was talking about... <em>they didn’t even knew Ren </em>.</p><p>And one would think your-friends-completely-forgetting-about-you would be the worst part of his day but after their first puzzled reactions they all renewed their vows of friendship to Ren (Ryuji, bless his soul, sweared he would compensate for the lost time he couldn’t even remember)  and hit it off like nothing had ever happened.</p><p>Nothing except Shiho was still in the school and Ryuji was part of the long dismantled track team.</p><p>He didn’t know if something else had happened to Makoto and he couldn’t find Haru for the life of him but it wasn’t hard to guess. He could see the patron here.</p><p>All of them recovered things they have lost. </p><p>Well, except Mona. </p><p>By now they knew he had never been human to begin with as Lavenza and Igor had kindly explained to them but the fact remained the same. Things weren’t what they were supposed to be.</p><p>Now that he thought about it he could go and see if the Velvet room was open and ask Lavenza or Igor what was going on...but he didn’t want to.</p><p>He knew he should go and look for Yusuke and Haru and see what they were up to... but his head was starting to hurt.</p><p>It was too much.</p><p>It was barely afternoon and the reality of the situation was starting to catch up with him and for the first time in many months he felt completely alone. Just like when everything started in April.</p><p>Objectively he knew he wasn’t alone. His friends were still his friends and the only reason that human looking Morgana had stopped following him everywhere was because Ann had invited them shopping with her and Shiho and Ren had thanked every god in existence for the gratuitous opportunity of gently getting rid of his not-cat by convincing him to accompany the girls without Ren because against all odds Ren wanted to be alone.</p><p>Because Ren was an amalgam of contrarieties and his solution to feeling lonely was to get away from everything and lock himself in his room and he didn’t care. He deserved this. A few hours for himself. The world owed him.</p><p>But the world didn’t care.</p><p>The world didn’t care that this was too much and that his head hurt because in his hurry to quickly get home he managed to stumble with the one person who could make everything worse.</p><p>“Here’s your order, sir. Hope you enjoy it.” Ren managed to hear the clerk say.</p><p>“I will. Thank you very much” the familiar voice said. </p><p>And the words escaped his mouth before he could catch himself.</p><p><em> “Akechi? </em>”</p><p>It was barely a whisper but it was enough to make his head whip around and focus directly on Ren’s shocked face, his well known pleasant smile already on place. (He hadn't realize how much he missed it.)</p><p>“It’s been a long time since I’ve gone by that name so there must be a reason for you to-” he started steel in his voice but the words quickly died replaced with a shocked face of his own. “...do I know you?” </p><p>“I...uh?” Ren eloquently said. All the words he ever learned stuck in his throat, unable to say a single one.</p><p>Because in front of him was none other than Goro Akechi himself wearing one his dorky blue vests he liked to wear. A huge contrast from the blue and black stripped bodythight suit he wore the last time he saw him in the bowels of Shido’s palace when he drove himself mad trying to kill him before he saved them and… and….</p><p>“We know, don’t we? You seem oddly familiar,” he said, drawing back Ren’s attention, with a little frown of his own, his hand resting on his chin as if trying to decipher the enigma in front of him.</p><p>
  <em>(God, how much had he missed him.)</em>
</p><p>Ren could see anger surface in Akechi’s eyes and Ren knew well enough to know he was getting mad with himself for his inability to recall their time together so he did what he thought best. He nodded.</p><p>The effect was immediate. </p><p>Akechi, who liked to be right, let out a small smile, proud of himself.</p><p> “I knew it,” he said nodding to himself “So...from where do we know each other?”</p><p>This is where Ren knew he had royally fucked up.</p><p>Ren still didn’t know what had happened to alter reality and erase his friend’s memories of him and unlike the others (but so like him)  Akechi hadn’t dropped the subject the minute Ren had affirmed they knew each other and now was waiting expectant for Ren’s reply.</p><p>Ren liked to consider himself a professional liar, a master of disguises and improvisation. Holder of dozens of masquerades. A wildcard of personas.</p><p>So it came to no one’s surprise when he said:</p><p> “At an interview in a program”</p><p>They said honesty was the best policy but Ren wanted nothing more than to shove his own shoe in his mouth. It was pure luck that apparently this Akechi did interviews too.</p><p>“Really? That must be it then,” Akechi smiled apologetically “Sorry for not remembering you before. You know how difficult interviews can be...”</p><p>Ren nodded along.<em> “Of course he knew,“  </em>he said like a liar.</p><p>“Were you another interviewed?,” Akechi asked, curiosity illuminating his face.</p><p>Ren’s improvisation skills that had been completely frozen finally surged at full capacity .</p><p>“Oh no! I’m not talented enough for that.... I... was part of the make up crew”</p><p>“A man in the make up crew?," Akechi said surprised "It’s a little strange I can remember you”</p><p>“I was in the back,” Ren hurried to say subtly moving away to not obstruct anymore customers from buying sweets pastries from the patisserie Ren finally noticed they had been blocking “Is that the special melon bread?,” he said pointing at Akechi’s bag to casually change topics.</p><p>Akechi nodded and was about to say something else when they were interrupted.</p><p>“Goro, sweetie, is everything alright?," A woman that approached them asked, concern lacing his tone. “I was waiting for you but you were taking- Who is this?,” she said focusing her warm eyes on Ren.</p><p>Ren didn’t even had to wonder who she was. Shido had been right when he said she was Akechi’s spitting image. Or more like Akechi was hers.</p><p>“It’s okay mom. I was buying the bread when I encountered a friend of mine,” Akechi said letting out a smile Ren had never seen before when he talked to her. “This is…” he said gesturing towards Ren but his words faltered.</p><p>“Amamiya Ren” Ren quickly added with a bow of his head like a perfect gentleman. Afterall it wasn’t everyday that he got the chance to meet his crush’s long dead mother. “It’s a pleasure to meet you”</p><p>“The pleasure is mine, Ren-kun,” she said. Chestnut locks, not unlike those of Akechi, framing the gentlest smile Ren had ever seen. "I’m always happy to meet one of Goro’s friends”</p><p>Ren easily returned the smile.</p><p>But good things never lasted.</p><p>“He was part of the make up crew from November's interview,” Goro said unprompted “He helped me to prepare before I went on stage”</p><p>Ren side eyed him confusedly.</p><p>
  <em> Why would he say… </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Fuck </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Of course </em>
</p><p>From the corner of his eye Ren could see a tiny smirk showing on the corners of Akechi’s mouth when his mother turned her back to him but he couldn’t pay attention to it because she was already addressing him.</p><p>“Really?” she said unaware of what was going on “I’m really thankful for that. Goro was really nervous back then.”</p><p>“It was nothing” Ren hesitantly said. He had definitely fucked up.</p><p>“And I’m sorry but I must cut short your encounter” she said turning to Akechi “Your father is waiting for us and you know how busy he is. We must hurry if we don’t want him to be late for his meeting, dear ”</p><p>
  <em> Father…?  </em>
</p><p>For the n-th time that day Ren’s blood froze in his veins but he didn’t let it show.</p><p>“Don’t worry mom, we were almost finished.” Akechi said handing her the bag of melon bread “Go ahead, I’ll catch up with you in the car after we interchange numbers”  </p><p>His mom nodded. “I hope to see you another time Ren-kun” she said waving with her hand and kissing Akechi’s cheek before marching away.</p><p>They waited until she was out of sight to turn to look at each other.</p><p>“Your mom...is really nice” Ren finally said. The first to break the tense silence between them.</p><p>“Yes, she is,” Akechi nodded “I’m sure you can understand why I won’t let anything happen to her”</p><p>Ren almost flinched. “I never tricked you, did I?”</p><p>“No” Akechi firmly said “But congratulations, I wasn’t lying when I said we were going to interchange numbers. You piqued my interest enough to accept meeting with you another time.”</p><p>Ren’s eyes widened. He definitely wasn’t expecting that. Akechi somehow managed to always surprise him</p><p>“And this time for your own good I hope you tell me the truth”</p><p>Yep, there was the headache once again.</p><p>With that said they parted ways each one with the other’s number and a promise to reunite at Le Blanc next wednesday. Just like the old times.</p><p>Ren was going to need a miracle to get rid of his throbbing headache</p><p>.</p><p>.</p><p>.</p><p>At the end Ren didn’t needed a miracle.</p><p>Nothing that a good cup of coffee couldn’t solve. Almost solve.</p><p>Ren still had a headache but the coffee helped to numb it enough for Ren to take out his laptop and begin googling.</p><p>He started by googling Haru and soon enough he found her personal twitter where she had been posting photos showing how much she and her dad were enjoying their annual ski trip. She looked very happy in them.</p><p>Then he googled Yusuke and it wasn’t any harder than Haru. </p><p>By the time he had finished reading a bunch of articles that talked about how successful had been his debut as an artist this past may with the joint exposition he did with his mentor, Madarame, Mona had already arrived taking his seat next to Ren’s and draping over Le Blanc’s counter.</p><p>He was lucky Sojiro hadn’t returned yet.</p><p>“What are you doing?” the human-cat lazily asked.</p><p>“Homework” Ren simply answered, ignoring any further interruptions from that being that dared to call himself his cat. He had work to do.</p><p>He finally googled the last of his objectives: Goro Akechi.</p><p>At first no results came but with what he thought he knew he had expected that, so he tried with another set of words.</p><p>If Haru and Yusuke had been easy to google then, after the correction, “Akechi” had been the easiest. </p><p>It didn’t take Ren long to find something when the internet was full of news about him, especially since his father, Shido Masayoshi, had been appointed as Japan’s new prime minister a mere week ago.</p><p>After seeing the dead come life Ren already knew something was wrong. But this, this practically confirmed he was in...some kind of alternate reality?</p><p>The news feed was filled to the brim with articles detailing the success of Shido’s campaign, his work and progress. His loving wife and charming son always by his side, portraying the perfect ideal of a japanese family.</p><p>The most recent news talked about the charity banquet the new prime minister and his family held for New Year’s celebration.</p><p>“Hey, isn’t that Japan’s prince?” Morgana asked watching from Ren's shoulders when he zoomed on Akechi's face on those photos.</p><p>“Japan’s prince?” Ren said finally acknowledging the human-cat.</p><p>“Yeah, the prime minister’s son” Mona simply said.</p><p>It didn’t take long for Ren to find what Mona was referring. Even with his whole life changed, Akechi had managed to become a sort of idol here as well.</p><p>He wasn’t the Detective Prince anymore but his position as the prime minister’s son, his good looks, his perfect grades and charming personality had earned him the title of “Japan’s prince” after everybody commented how much Shido and his family looked as graceful as a royal family.</p><p>“At least I now know where I fucked up” Ren dryly commented to no one in particular, glaring at the particular title one of Akechi’s many swooning fans wrote about him.</p><p>
  <b>“Goro Shido, Japan’s prince, does it again!”</b>
</p><p>Ren scrolled back to the first article from New Year’s banquet he read and centered the screen on the family portrait adorning the beginning.</p><p>Shido was in there wearing a suit and smirking, not looking any different from how Ren knew him except for the fact his left arm was placed around his wife's waist.</p><p>Akechi’s mom was in the middle, wearing a beautiful sky blue kimono with floral patterns. Her hair was tied in a simple updo and she was smiling at the camera with the same gentleness she had smiled at Ren.</p><p>And finally, Akechi was on her other side wearing a suit as well, posing as Ren had seen him pose so many times before and yet… and yet he seemed more relaxed, less tense.</p><p>Ren had an eye for this and he knew what he was seeing: Akechi was happy.</p><p>His mom never died, Shido was a decent man who never abandoned them and Akechi got to grow up in a loving and stable home.</p><p>Akechi never had to lost his mom. He never had to endure the cruelties of life as an orphan bastard child. He never had to make a master plan to revenge against his father. He never had to kill anyone. He never had to die.</p><p>A blissful life.</p><p>Le Blanc’s bell door chimed and the entrance's door opened by a smiling Sojiro and equally smiling Futaba.</p><p>A blissful life for him and all of his friends.</p><p>“Sorry for leaving you all day kiddo,” Sojiro smiled apologetically at him “We didn’t realize how late it was”</p><p>A blissful live for all of his loved ones. But him...</p><p>Futaba climbed to the other chair next to him.</p><p>Where did that leave him?</p><p>“Next time you better go with us instead of holeing all day here by yourself,“ Futaba cheerfully said lightly punching him on the arm “I can’t have a perfect day without all of my favourite persons. Right, Mona?”</p><p>
  <em> “I’m sure you can understand why I won’t let anything happen to her” </em>
</p><p>Ren just nodded, taking another sip from his cup of coffee,</p><p>Nothing that a good cup of coffee couldn’t solve.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So first of all I want to say I only watched  japanese playthroughs of Royal when it was first released so I'm not sure if the PT do know who Akiren is. I just know Ryuji looks very confused when Akiren appoaches him on 1/1 and I went with it. I f that's isn't the case...well, then this is an au where that happens (because that's how i fix everything :3)</p><p>Second of all this went...unexpected places. While it mostly follows the gist of what I had planned,  out of nowhere Akiren decided he wanted to be moody and brooding and I had no idea why (yeah...this is a thing that happens) until I had already written that part. My guess (lol) is that Akiren realized everybody got back the persons they lost... everybody but him (Akechi) and this is a boy who doesn't know how to grieve, so it did affected him to see everybody happy.<br/>Besides the fact that this aren't the versions of the friends he knows so one could argue are they really his friends then?</p><p>Sorry for the human Mona bash, but that comic from Kythal in Tumblr is hilarious and it was one of my first introductions to P5. I had to pay it honours.</p><p>At first i wanted this to be full on angst but then i started writing it and it turned to comedy? and then it turned to angst again and honestly I don't know where this ended.</p><p>Actually a single line was about to end with this whole fanfic.</p><p>Since i came up with this idea, the part where Akiren calls him "Akechi?" was one of the key phrases and it was one of the biggest reasons to write this fic but then i realized Akechi is goros maternal surname as a illegimitate child and in this au he would be a Shido which Ren of course wouldn't know so I would have to have Ren call him "Goro?" ...<br/>BUT NO because as far as i know at least by the point of shidos ship they always refere to him as Akechi and you know how are japanese with calling only close people by their names and besides it would be strange for Akechi to have a stranger come and call him by his name<br/>But if I kept it as "Akechi?" then it would mean Ren is calling him by his illegitimate surname in this world and thats worse and I swear to god I did an all nighter of research about illegitimate children in Japan, and their rights, and how this issue was dealt with when it came to politicians and how would be if the son of a politician kept its illegitimate surname and believe me when i say this is a can of worms you dont want to open at godamn 4am (besides i could only read english text that were 10 years old so i hope the situations is much better now...its yeah, a lot, now I understand canon akechi)</p><p>So as you can see I ended trapped in a vicious circle thanks to japanese customs i didnt know enough...actually i dont know either if prime ministers officiate new years banquets or the role of their family  but it was too much research for one fanfic so at the end i stuck with a subplot  where this is what helps Akechi realize Akiren is lying (originally he didn't realize) and to make Ren catch his interest.</p><p>In case it wasn't clear Shido did abandon Akechi and his mother so she registered him with her surname but then Shido came back and awknoledged Akechi giving him his own name and either this isn't strictly confidential but very few know or because this is Maruki's world the society is more accepting of it. But still that's not reason enough for strangers to go calling you that so thats where Ren fucked up.</p><p>I'm telling you. This tiny detail almost killed this fic<br/>And I don't know why I write Akiren so dumb but I have fun doing so *shrugs*</p><p>Anyway as i said I hope you enjoyed it. Please for the love of god if you liked leave a comment.<br/>For those who are new to the world of fanfics thanks to the global situation i welcome you and for everybody  I hope you and all your loved ones stay as safe as possible.</p><p>Edit: HAHAHA THIS IS SO EMBARRASING.<br/>After all I went through I can't believe I mistaked Shidos given name for his family name  HAHAHA &lt;_&lt;<br/>It has been corrected now.</p><p>Oh, and I just realized I manged to post this fic in Mother's day. And it even had a mom as key character! Which was a nice coincidence considering last year  i did a mp100 mother's day fic so it is kinda becoming an annual tradition??  And it was a total accident!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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